


Some people wait a lifetime

by Ljparis



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, First Kiss, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:47:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26602432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ljparis/pseuds/Ljparis
Summary: "That was your moment, dude," Reggie said, eyes wide. He shoved playfully at Luke again, made a big gesture toward where Julie had been standing moments before.
Relationships: Alex & Luke Patterson & Reggie (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 33
Kudos: 800





	Some people wait a lifetime

**Author's Note:**

> Well, here we are. Binged the show. Read most of the fic on AO3. Wrote my own. This was written quickly and is un-beta'd. Title is from "A Moment Like This," by Kelly Clarkson.
> 
> If you're reading this, I hope you enjoy it. 
> 
> \--

Reggie barely waited a second after Julie had left, the garage doors closing quietly behind her, before nudging Luke sharply in the ribs. 

"Ow, what was the for?" Luke rubbed his side, stepping away from his friend and bandmate. They'd just leveled up away from intense, end-of-everything pain, and Luke didn't need Reggie agitating his still slightly sore core.

"That was your moment, dude," Reggie said, eyes wide. He swatted at Luke's bicep and made a big gesture toward where Julie had been standing moments before.

It took a second for Luke to get it, but when he did, he shook his head. "Shut up," he said, cheeks pink. He looked over at the closed doors as if he could make Julie poof back in the way they could poof out. "Bro, it was _our_ moment. The band's moment," he continued, mumbling.

Reggie looked past Luke to Alex, and they shared a look. "Uh huh. If you say so."

Luke blinked. "I do say so," he said. "Alex, c'mon, back me up."

Alex rubbed his arms and shrugged. "You could have asked us to poof out so you could have a moment alone with Julie. You know, after we were done with all the hugging and emotions and stuff. We get it, really."

"There is no moment with Julie, okay?" Luke said, a little too loudly in the late night quiet. Good thing they were ghosts and Julie was the only person who might have heard him, and she had already gone, which was a good thing, especially in this case. "There isn't going to be, I mean."

Reggie sat down on the leather chair, the one that wasn't all that comfortable at all but he could swing his legs up over the side and just chill. "Yeah there is," he said. "It's like we talked about, that chemistry. Everyone can see it."

Luke went quiet for a moment then sank onto the couch and rubbed his face with his palms. He groaned. "Yeah, well, that's the problem, right? She can do better than me. She _should_ do better than me. She should -"

"Yeah, man, I know. It's complicated." Alex sat next to him, their shoulders touching.

Luke sighed with his whole body. "I know there's something there. She knows it. You idiots know it. Everyone at the Orpheum knows it. Maybe the whole world knows it by now, on that trending YouTube thing. And maybe we're not like, sold to Caleb anymore or whatever, and maybe we didn't cross over and the band is back, but like, we're still dead. I'm still dead. Julie's still a lifer. I can't -"

Alex dropped his head to Luke's shoulder. "Yeah."

Reggie contorted himself onto his side and looked over at his bandmates. "But you two _ooze_ -"

"Stop saying 'ooze,'" Alex shot back at the same time as Luke, shaking his head firmly, said, "We're a band, first and foremost." Alex let him keep going. "No time for romance or chemistry or anything like that. Not if we want this to work, for this to be our legacy." For them to figure out their unfinished business and cross over, if that's where this whole afterlife thing led them. 

"But you -" Reggie started again.

Alex cut him off by flinging a pillow at his face. "Don't you dare say it again, Reginald!"

"Geez, all right, all right, I won't, god." He got up and shoved at Luke's leg until he scooted over and made room for Reggie to squeeze in on the couch too. When he opened his mouth to say something else, a huge yawn came out instead.

It was contagious, and Alex stretched his arms up and back, spreading himself out as much as he could in what narrow room he had. "I guess -" another yawn "- that whole thing about not needing to sleep -" Luke yawned again "- is over."

"Yeah, I could use a nap," Luke drawled out, his eyes already closed.

"Me, too," Reggie added, the words slurred together in those few moments before sleep.

It didn't take long for the three ghosts, exhausted from their time at the Hollywood Ghost Club, their groundbreaking performance at the Orpheum, and their leveling up, to fall asleep.

\--

It wasn't often lately that Julie had the studio to herself. Usually it was the whole band; her trio of ghost friends had made themselves more at home than ever since their performance at the Orpheum. But sometimes it was another combination of Julie and the Phantoms, if Luke was off at his parents, Alex with Willie, or Reggie doing who knows what. That Saturday morning though, Julie found herself alone with her thoughts, a few folded up pieces of paper, and her mother's piano.

Dancing with Nick in the school gym while daydreaming about Luke felt like a lifetime ago, yet Julie knew every word of that song by heart. The problem was, every time she thought she had the melody right, it faded away, just out of reach, like the last vestiges of a dream.

Her fingers curled, she played out the one strand of the song she had on repeat in her mind, but her fingers wouldn't go any further.

She did it again, then again, then a third time. Each time, she could hear the lyrics in her head but not the melody. Frustrated, she pushed the notebook paper away on top of the piano. She let her fingers fly over the keys in run after run after run, each one furiously faster.

She was so immersed in banging out run after run that she missed Luke poofing into the studio.

"Julie," he said, then repeated himself a little more loudly when she didn't respond. "Julie, what are you doing?" Luke straddled the piano bench, beside her, and touched her wrist.

Julie jumped, startled. "Luke! Sorry - I was just -"

"Are you okay?" He wrapped his fingers loosely around her wrist, his touch scorching her. He'd forgotten what it was like to touch Julie, even though now he could.

Her skin burned and her heart rate leapt. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. I - thought you were out?"

He nodded. 

Julie was torn. On the one hand, she wanted to wait until the song was done and perfect before she showed it to Luke. A gift to him, she thought. On the other hand, and with this feeling deep inside her chest that she couldn't shake, she wondered if maybe he could unlock the melody and help her finish the song.

She reached out, fingers crawling along the top of the piano, for her notebook paper. She crumpled it up, moving it away from Luke.

He nodded toward it. "What are you working on?" 

"Nothing," Julie said quickly. "I mean, just a song. I - " One of two choices here, and something tugged at Julie to lean towards him. "Maybe you can help? It's a duet," she said quickly. "For us. I'm having trouble with the melody. It's like, I can picture the whole thing in my head, heat us singing it, but when I sit down at the piano to work on it, it's just gone." Her face got hot, and instead of looking at Luke, she looked at the paper clutched in her hand.

"Can I see it?" he asked, and when Julie didn't immediately hand it over to him, he reached out to take it himself, covering her hand with his, fingers sliding against hers as he thumbed at the notebook paper. She didn't loosen her grip. "Julie?"

She breathed out through her nose and looked at him, finding him so much closer to her than she anticipated, even as they sat side by side, Luke crowding into her on the piano bench, his hand on hers. "Sorry, yeah, of course." She let go, let him take the paper, and pulled her hands back into her lap.

Luke nodded and maneuvered to sit the right way beside her. "Rad," he said. He uncrinkled the paper and spread it out in front of them. As he read, his mouth moved with the words, and he jiggled his leg. Julie felt it, warm and jittery, against her own. 

"I want your music here inside my hands," he whispered, turning his hand over so it rested, palm up, on top of the piano. Beside him, Julie shivered.

Impulsively, Julie slid hers into his. Luke's attention jerked to her. Their eyes met. For a long moment, silence between them (though Julie couldn't imagine that Luke couldn't hear how hard her heart pounded inside her chest), they stared at one another. Luke's fingers curled around hers. 

Was he going to kiss her? Was that something he could even do, now? What would it feel like? Warm and welcoming, like hugging him? Electric and intense, like when they sang together, shared the mic, in front of the shouts and applause from the audience? Something else entirely? She tingled with anticipation, her breathing changing. This was it. This was the moment.

Luke cleared his throat and turned away from her. "Uh - this is really good," he said, his voice sounding strange, hoarse, far away. "Really, really good. Uh - so maybe it would go like this." But he hadn't let go of Julie's hand, and she squeezed it as he started to sing.

Within the first few notes, Julie heard the melody that had been playing on repeat in her mind. Her smile grew. "Yeah," she said, nodding, unable to explain how Luke could just pick up on it without any prompting. She took the second verse. Their voices came together in, well, perfect harmony as they sang through the song once, growing more confident together with each line.

When they were done, Julie felt like she was on fire. She rubbed her thumb over Luke's knuckles. He banged his knee off the underside of the piano in his haste to turn to face her again. "Julie," he said urgently.

She looked at him and swallowed. "Luke?"

His free hand came up to touch her face, like he had in those moments after they discovered that they could touch. "I know I can't be - like, I know I'm not alive, Julie, but I feel alive when I'm with you, when we're singing together, when we're just here like this."

She covered his hand on her cheek with her own. "Me too," she said, then laughed, flushed. "I mean, obviously I'm always alive but, I feel the same way. About you."

"Yeah?" Luke leaned in toward her.

Julie nodded.

His gaze dropped down to her mouth. 

Julie's breath hitched. "Do you think -?" she started to ask. She looked down away from him for a second. "If you can touch me like this, if you can hold my hand, do you think you can - like, would you want to -?"

"Kiss you?" Luke finished for her. She nodded. He nodded and wet his lips. "Yeah, yeah, I think - I think we can try it. If you - if you want to."

"I do," she said quickly.

"Me, too."

It seemed like an entire lifetime before Luke gathered up the courage to meet Julie halfway and close the gap between them. She hadn't been waiting for him to make the first move, not really, but she didn't want to lunge forward and have her face pass through his or something equally embarrassing.

When Julie and Luke finally kissed, it was like every song in the world exploded into one beautiful rock symphony in their minds. 

After that initial touch, lip to lip, Julie pulled back, electric shock coursing through every nerve-ending. Dark eyes wide, she looked at Luke, but he kissed her again before she could say anything. He pushed some hair off her cheek, behind her ear. Her fingers sank into his hair, damp and soft, and pulled him closer. She could hear their song, the melody casually replaying in the air around them.

"I'm -"

Luke kissed her again, and she kissed him right back, and they would have kept kissing for the rest of the afternoon if they hadn't been interrupted by a knock, quickly followed by the heavy movement of the garage door. With a startled gasp, Luke poofed out, leaving Julie alone on the bench, leaning into the space that Luke had filled moments before.

"Julie, I texted you and yelled your name a few times. It's dinner time."

Blinking, she snapped herself out of the moment and turned, finding her father in the entryway to the studio. "Papi! Sorry, I - sorry, I lost track of time." Flustered, she shut the cover to the piano keys and stuffed the notebook paper into her jeans pocket. "Sorry, sorry -"

"Are you all right?" Ray asked, coming closer.

She forced a smile at him. "Yeah, just - give me a moment. I was working on a song, that's all. Got lost in the music."

He looked around the studio suspiciously then settled a look back at Julie. "I heard you singing. With one of your bandmates."

She nodded slowly, her gaze darting to the now empty space beside her. "Oh, yeah, we were on Facetime, yeah," Julie said quickly. She knew she needed to tell Papi the truth at some point, but she still wasn't sure how he'd react. He certainly wouldn't react well if he knew that she could kiss her ghostly bandmates. 

Ray looked for her phone sitting out for proof of her statement, didn't see it anywhere, but didn't mention it. "All right, well, it sounded really good. Next single, maybe?" He smiled. "Your tia brought flautas and flan for dessert."

Julie's smile grew. "Sounds great." She took a step but hesitated. Carefully, she pulled the notebook paper from her pocket and spread it back out on top of the piano. "Don't want to lose it," she said, then joined her father. "Let's go. I'm really hungry."

Ray wrapped an arm around his daughter's back and led her from the garage.

Before the door closed all the way, Julie glanced back over her shoulder to find Luke, looking at once both disheveled and satisfied, back on the piano bench. He waved, lower lip tucked between his teeth, bashfully at her.

She smiled back, face hot, and closed the doors. With a spring in her step and a secret wound even more tightly inside of her heart, Julie walked with her father into the house. She could hardly wait for the next moment she could steal alone with Luke, now that she knew they could do _that_.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and a comment are <3 Thank you!


End file.
